Indeed, Melvin Georgekish says he spotted a pair of the mythic creatures, also known as Sasquatch, while he was driving his pick-up truck along a road in a wooded area near his town.

He said he saw two sets of red eyes staring at him from the forest.

Cree hunter Melvin Georgekish found this footprint in the moss, at the spot where he'd seen a pair of 'red-eyed beasts' staring at him from the woods near Wemindji, Que. (Melvin Georgekish)

He drove on, then turned around, returning to the spot and flashing his lights, but the red-eyed beasts were gone.

At home, he tossed and turned all night.

"I was thinking and thinking, and there's no animal that has red eyes over here," Georgekish said. "I am a hunter, and I've never seen something like that."

Giant footprints in the moss

He returned to the same spot the next day and found giant footprints in the moss, the likes of which he had never seen before — one measuring 20 centimetres, the second, 35 centimetres.

He described the footprints as big and wide.

"You can see the toes, too. It's like a human foot, but way bigger than a human foot. Wider, too."

Protectors of the Crees

Legends of Bigfoot are part of Cree oral history, according to Bradley A.J. Georgekish, also of Wemindji — a community of 25 hundred on the east coast of James Bay, 1,400 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

Bradley Georgekish said they are regarded as protectors of the Crees. There have been many stories of sightings but not much proof to date.

He said Melvin Georgekish's photographs have caused quite a stir.

"There's definitely a buzz in town. There are people of the opinion who say that if I don't see it, I don't believe it."